On being scared.

[dsrtao]

How to scare yourself:

1. Read Dan Geer on monocultures: http://geer.tinho.net/acm.geer.0704.pdf -- especially the bit where he casually mentions that there are 10^60 insects on this planet, and 10^50 of them are ants.

2. Read Charlie Stross' _Missile Gap_ http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring2007/fiction-missile-gap-by-charles-stross/

Shiver a lot.

Comments

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Ahem: there are not 10^60 insects on this planet. Reason for asserting this: Earth masses 5.87 x 10^24 kilograms, so unless your insects mass on the order of 10^-33 grams (or about as much as one electron) there can't be 10^60 insects on the Earth.

On the other hand, if he said 2^60, that's only 1.15 x 10^18, which -- while a huge number -- is a lot more plausible, and 2^50 is only 1.126 x 10^15, or on the order of 20,000 times the Earth's human population. Which is eminently plausible.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

2^50? Yay! we outmass the ants!

...that can't be right. 6e9 people * 80 kg each = 5e11 kg.

5e11 kg / 2^50 = 4e-1 g. Many -- most? -- ants weigh less than half a gram.

Yay! We outmass the ants!